The long saga of two giant, colonial-era paintings — stolen from a Bolivian church in 2002 and unwittingly purchased in 2003 by New York collectors, who discovered they were stolen after loaning them for a 2013 exhibit — came full circle yesterday when they were unveiled at the government palace in La Paz. »4/10/15 1:20pm 4/10/15 1:20pm

Recently, when consoling a boy whose dog had died, Pope Francis publicly stated that "paradise is open to all of God's creatures." Despite the ambiguousness of the statement, many animal lovers and rights groups have interpreted it as a repudiation of Catholic theology stating animals don't have souls. »12/12/14 9:20am 12/12/14 9:20am

Pope Francis has declared evolution and the Big Bang theory to be real, while adding that God isn't "a magician with a magic wand." The comments, while not completely unprecedented for the Catholic Church, goes against the "pseudo theory" of intelligent design encouraged by the previous pope, Benedict XVI. »10/29/14 6:30am 10/29/14 6:30am

There's a ton of amazing talent in David Bowie's music video for "The Next Day": Bowie, for one, but also Gary Oldman and Marion Cotillard, reunited after The Dark Knight Rises. But the video itself is a dismally on-the-nose, been-there-done-that critique of organized religion. NSFWish for breasts and blood. »5/12/13 11:00am 5/12/13 11:00am

The answer is actually yes. And in fact, the Roman Catholic Church has recognized Darwinian evolution for the past 60 years. It openly rejects Intelligent Design and Young Earth Creationism saying that it "pretends to be science." But the Church’s unique take on the theory, what it calls theistic evolution, still… »3/16/13 1:00pm 3/16/13 1:00pm

Is the world only a Pope away from the End? Yes, if you believe a chilling 12th-century prophecy. Attributed to St. Malachy, an Irish archbishop canonized in 1190, the Prophecy of the Popes would date to 1139. The document predicted that there would be only 112 more popes before the Last Judgment — and Benedict XVI… »2/14/13 7:20am 2/14/13 7:20am

Karen L. King, a historian of early Christianity at Harvard Divinity School, is claiming that a small, faded scrap of papyrus dating back to the fourth century contains a phrase never before seen before in Scripture: "Jesus said to them, 'My wife...'" »9/18/12 3:20pm 9/18/12 3:20pm